episode_0045

*****

“But, are you really okay with going?”

After school, when all training is over. It was Jeongyoung who said that while the kids were on their way to the cafe where they had met.

“Have I made any other plans?”

“It’s not like that. Teacher Sia doesn’t really like people in the corporate world. If you’re going to do an internship at a company, wouldn’t they tell you to work for an association?”

Oh, come to think of it, there was something like that. What really happened while I was gone?

“It won’t really matter. There’s no way Sia wouldn’t know that our team was offered an internship, and if there were any problems, she would have told me a long time ago.”

And apart from the problem, there is also interest in how hero activities work in a typical company. When I was active, companies didn’t play a big part in hero activities.

While chatting about things, we arrived at the cafe where we had met, and there was a person who got up from his seat and came towards us.

“Thank goodness. You’re welcome! You can come here. Well, here it is.”

“Ah, yes… .”

A man in a suit led us to our seats with a loud gesture. Even if it seems exaggerated at first glance, is natural behavior a characteristic of a salesperson?

However, he was a very impressive person with a narrow smile and narrow eyes. This is my first time seeing someone with such small eyes in real life.

… For some reason, he looks like a very conman.

“Be careful, Hwain. I’m sure he’ll do something.”

“Haha, I kind of have that impression.”

“!?”

There was no way I could say something like that out loud, so of course I covered my mouth and spoke in a low voice. But you heard that? That’s strange, I don’t think he’s an awakened person.

“You look like you’re asking how I got it right. Oh, just in case, I am not an awakened person. Just looking at my impression, everyone thinks that way.”

“Well, what is it, I’m sorry… .”

“It’s okay. Because I’m used to it.”

Because I’m used to it. I feel like those words are digging deep into my heart. Because this is a thought that I have often thought of.

Yes, if you think about it, how wrong it is to judge people based on their appearance. When I think of the losses I suffered due to a huge raise during my time as a member of the community, I can’t say anything. Since I haven’t suffered any apparent losses lately, I’ve made these mistakes inadvertently… !

“Now, forget the little things. Please take this first.”

While I was being pricked by remorse, the man took out business cards from his arms and handed one to each of us. The business card read ‘HS Management Department Manager Lee Seong-jin’. “Oh,” the people around me gasped a little. This is my first time hearing about this place.

“H S? Is this a famous place?”

“It’s a famous place. It’s where the hero team that closed the Great Rift in Suwon three years ago is located.”

“Amy, you sometimes showed a lack of common sense, but this was a bit extreme.”

“After all, isn’t Ami like a reclusive expert who came down from training in the mountains?”

About being treated like a recluse who turned away from the world just because he didn’t know the name of the company. It seems like it was an incredibly famous place.

Please read “Hero Service. You seem to be from an island or a rural area, right? We haven’t made much inroads there yet.”

“Yes, well, I guess it roughly feels like that… ?”

“Unfortunately, strictly speaking, our team is closer to the subcontracting side of HS. Oh, but the affiliation itself is definitely under HS, so don’t worry. Your actual internship record will also be displayed there. However, the members may not have the skills and know-how of HS… .”

The agent, who had convinced me of my background, went on to explain the team he belonged to. In short, the team that the agent belongs to is said to be a team that is responsible for tasks that are classified as minor tasks within HS as HS grows in size.

However, that is all that has happened so far. It seems that his immediate goal is to raise the status of the team itself by launching a talented team at a time when a generational change is taking place in HS and developing it into a new star team for HS.

His meticulous—and very well-crafted—presentation and clear speaking skills spoke volumes about the passion he had for the job.

“Of course, I do not deny that there is some element of adventure. But there will also be ample compensation for that.”

“What is the compensation?”

“Yes. First of all, we will not only provide the latest hero suits to all four of you, but also assign a personal manager to each of you to ensure that there are no inconveniences other than battle. In addition, we will use the same training facilities as the hero team at HS headquarters, and we promise that all other matters will be applied in the same way as the HS high-rank teams.”

“”Oh… !””

All of this for just 39,800 won! A small exclamation rose from Raon and I at the smooth words that seemed to be said. You have to buy this!

Perfect!

“Both of you, come to your senses.”

“Ouch! Hey, why are you hitting me!”

“You are a man.”

“… ? Is that so?”

After listening to the agent’s explanation for a while, I was greeted by Jeong Young. Something is unclear, but I can’t refute it because I don’t think it’s wrong.

“Oh, but isn’t it a really good condition?”

“The conditions are good. But we came here to talk about interns, but this is completely talking about after graduation.”

“Wow, come to think of it!”

You lied! As expected, characters with narrowed eyes cannot be trusted. From now on, I’ll call you a narrow-eyed man.

“Haha, that was a bit hasty. However, it is also true that we hope that you will come to us after hearing about your outstanding skills. In fact, if you try to come to us, it will take 3 years at the fastest, and usually over 4 years, right? If you want to prepare for a generational change, you need to prepare in advance now.”

3 years. The time that Silnunnam mentioned is a mandatory time imposed on awakened people in Korea. In order to stop the monster wave pouring out of the monster colony in Manchuria, it is mandatory to serve for a certain period of time like in the military.

The deadline is about half a year longer, it is imposed without distinction between men and women, the salary is great, but depending on the unit, it is extremely dangerous, etc. There are many differences from regular units, so it is completely different from military life except that it is actually mandatory. That is.

“To sum it up, the only special advantage of interning with those people is that we are treated as HS, right?”

“Haha. For my part, I would like you to evaluate what I just said.”

The narrow-eyed man responded to Hwa-in’s summary with a smile, but did not deny the story. In other words, I couldn’t expect much of the experience I would get from a normal internship. As the narrow-eyed man said, the current team over there was simply a miscellaneous task force.

And it was a story that was quite surprising to us.

“Are you not talking about strength?”

“Strong, you mean?”

“I heard a rumor. There are rumors that the abilities of the heroes who worked with that team are strengthened.”

rumor. The narrow-eyed man smiled bitterly, as if he was embarrassed by the word that Hwa-in said.

“You’re already listening. As expected from the A class, information seems to travel quite quickly. First of all, I asked the students who participated in the internship to refrain from joining.”

“Even if the students don’t say it, you can understand it by looking at the changes in the skills of the participants. From the way you say it, it seems like you know, but why don’t you bring it up?”

“Um… . I would like you to refrain from spreading the story from now on as much as possible. Are you okay?”

We all nodded at the narrow-eyed man’s confirmation. When asked this question in the first place, it is rare to answer ‘Yes, I will spread it~’.

“It is certainly true that the heroes working for us show a sudden increase in their capabilities, no matter how big or small. Our training curriculum is excellent… I would like to say that, but our curriculum follows the HS standards almost exactly, so we don’t do anything special.”

“That means… .”

“Yes. We also do not know the cause. So, for now, I am only reporting to the association as part of my duties to improve my skills.”

As you experience actual combat, your skills improve rapidly. Of course, this happens all the time in hero society. It is not uncommon for heroes with some talent to experience this more than once. There were also differences in the level of strength from person to person.

But the heroes on that team right now are probably not that skilled. It is difficult to dismiss the fact that such people are all experiencing an increase in their skills as a coincidence.

“It is good to improve your skills right away, but unless we can control it, we cannot make it a condition of the contract. It’s a lie to say you can do something you can’t.”

Were you surprised by his sincerity? He laughed as if teasing me with narrowed eyes. Ugh, even if I have ten mouths, I have nothing to say.

“If you are still concerned about that, would you mind calling one of our team members to talk about it? There is one person waiting nearby.”

Certainly, in situations where the cause is unknown, it would be helpful to hear actual experiences.

When Hwain agreed to Silnunnam’s proposal, Silnunnam said he would bring the relevant people, asked them to wait a moment, and went out of the cafe. When the rest of us realized that we hadn’t even ordered a drink yet, we each ordered one.

Ah, drink some sweet cream.

As we chatted and drank coffee, it wasn’t long before the cafe door opened. Next to the narrow-eyed man coming in, there was a brown-haired woman wearing a hero suit.

“Ah, hello. These are Cheonmyeong High School people, right? I am active in Galaxy Team 1─, ah.”

Jerrit.

At the same time that the woman was embarrassed, Jeongyoung’s expression became grim. What is it, do you two know each other?

“I was really sorry about last time!”

It’s a surprise. Even before I could think about the relationship between Shota and the mature woman, I was taken aback because the woman greeted me at a 90-degree angle.

However, it seemed like I was the only one who didn’t know this woman, and even Hwa-in was giving her a stern look. At least Raon had a slightly subtle expression, but his cold reaction was no different.

“You don’t remember? Well, now that I think about it, you were taken to the rescue team right then, so you probably didn’t see this person’s face.”

I wondered if it was a connection from when I wasn’t around, but it seems that wasn’t the case. Have I ever seen someone like this? As for what I was recently transported to… , ah.

“Are you from the time of the Minotaur?”

“Yes, that’s right. I really appreciate your help back then. And I’m really sorry.”

I remembered. This person, what am I…? Anyway, he was the freelance hero who approached the Minotaur in the crack that appeared that day and was counterattacked.

Do you know how embarrassed I was because of that!? Naturally, my expression was grim–I didn’t lose. When I think of that incident, I feel ashamed rather than angry.

wait for a sec. So aren’t Hwa-in and Jeong-young angry now, remembering my injury(?)? Of course, these two people probably knew that the bleeding was a simple injury, but it was not desirable for them to keep thinking about that time. Mainly my mental health.

“Well, bygones are bygones, right? Rather, think about what lies ahead. Come on, you guys too. Because I’m fine. We have to talk about the internship now, right?”

“Thank you, really… .”

“… Phew. Well, yes. That’s right.”

“Hmph. Look at me if I show you like that one more time.”

Fortunately, all three seemed to have moved on from what happened. Only Raon seemed to have guessed the reason for my actions and just smiled awkwardly.

“Well, it looks like our staff made a big mistake. I will apologize again for this later. Now, Mr. Rabbit, please tell us about your experience of ‘Ganghwa’.”

“ㄴ, yes! So when I first came in──”

After that, Rabbit—the hero name is Ratchet Rabbit—talked about his experience and a question and answer session continued. Below is a summary of it.

First, it is said that only three people have made exceptions to ability enhancement so far. I asked a lot of questions about those three people, but I couldn’t find anything they had in common.

It varies from person to person until the ability is strengthened, but it is said that it usually takes about a week. On the other hand, it is said that the strengthened abilities will revert to their original state about a week after leaving the team.

Lastly, the parts that are strengthened are said to vary greatly. In some cases, the physical ability became stronger, and in other cases, the potential became stronger. One person said that there were cases where his sense of taste was enhanced, although he had no idea what was being enhanced.

“Maybe the three people who thought they were not strengthened may not have been strengthened, but they just couldn’t find the strengthened part.”

The story was roughly summarized with the narrow-eyed man supplementing the story.

Everyone was silent for a while. Everyone is probably organizing in their own way what they just heard.

I wanted to do the same, but I had more things to worry about right now.

“Mr. Rabbit?”

“Yes? Did you call me?”

Mr. Rabbit suddenly turns his head this way. The emotions in that gaze faded.

Judging by my experience so far, my potential is roughly in three order. First, it recognizes gaze, reads the emotions contained in those gazes, and amplifies magical power according to the number of gazes and the type of emotion.

However, although gaze recognition is almost unconditional, this is not necessarily true for emotions. Emotions are the perception I want to read, the extent to which the other person wants to hide, and… . Although it is not accurate, the recognition rate varies depending on how familiar I am with the emotion. I don’t know if there are any other conditions.

Usually, it is easiest to recognize when making eye contact. And in Mr. Rabbit’s eyes, who made eye contact with me, I could read a strong emotion for a moment, and then it disappeared in an instant.

My guess is that Mr. Rabbit’s unconscious feelings for the person he was looking at until then were briefly revealed as he looked at me. After a quick experiment while pretending to talk to Mr. Rabbit, I think it’s correct to some extent.

Now, in that case, the problem is the person Rabbit was looking at and his feelings. First of all, the person Rabbit was looking at was a man with narrow eyes.

If the emotion I felt here was goodwill, I would have congratulated it, but unfortunately, that feeling was all too familiar to me.

Mr. Rabbit was afraid of the narrow-eyed man.

***

“The time given to me is slowly running out. Can I expect a positive answer?”

“I will talk to my team members and get back to you.”

“Hehe. I’m glad that teamwork seems to be good.”

After that, the consultation ended with only light talk being exchanged. Mr. Rabbit bowed his head several times politely and left the cafe.

“What can I say, it’s a lot more serious than I thought… .”

“This is normal. No, this may actually be considered insufficient.”

Grumble. As they finished the coffee in front of them, Hwain and Jeongyoung each opened their mouths. As a leader, Hwa-in, who came to the front and dealt with the narrow-eyed man, looked quite exhausted.

“Really? Isn’t that a bad condition for you guys? If HS or something like that is a good place, I think it would be quite an advantage to have it displayed on your resume.”

Many things have already changed from the original. Even if Sarah is a painter, in some cases, Jeongyoung or Raon may be able to live normally without worrying about their bad relationship with Genesis.

I am… . I think that’s not a bad future at all. The path to becoming a great hero is, of course, fraught with sharp thorns.

If it were the original, it would be impossible, but in this world, it is possible. It’s not just these kids. My colleagues and I have worked hard to change the world so that children do not have to bear the fate of struggle.

Of course, a peaceful life doesn’t mean it’s easy. Even in our previous peaceful lives, we were all living fiercely, talking about qualifications and other things.

“It’s a problem before conditions. That person, Seongjin Lee, was quite good at speaking.”

“You certainly gave a good presentation.”

“Not like that. hmm… , what should I say? For example, do you remember when you caught ARMY’s slip of the tongue at the very beginning?”

I flinched a little when my mistake was suddenly pointed out, but Jeongyoung didn’t care about my reaction and continued talking.

“In that way, he stimulated ARMY’s guilt to make it easier for them to agree with his story later.”

“Aha, that’s why I fell for that person’s flattery.”

“Isn’t it just that Ami is a cute little girl?”

“The same goes for Ganghwa. If it was really important, I wouldn’t have made a verbal promise not to say it, but I would have used contract magic or something. It’s almost like they’re asking us to spread rumors about them.”

“I think they just trusted us, the heroes. Aren’t you guessing too much?”

Jeongyoung, who always tries to look behind the scenes, and Raon, who is pure, sometimes have differences of opinion like this. Fortunately, before the opinion could lead to a war of attrition, Hwain clapped and drew attention to himself.

“It doesn’t really matter what kind of person that person is right now, right? Because I heard everything anyway. First of all, the team over there is not handling such a big task right now. It probably won’t be of much help in terms of experience. And since we have a high chance of colliding with Genesis, I think it’s best to prioritize opportunities to improve our skills.”

Depending on the company’s circumstances, internships also take away Cheon Myeong-go’s training time. In other words, if you do not gain more experience than what you can get at Cheonmyeong High School through internship activities, it may simply be a waste of time.

In fact, it was a fairly reasonable standard since Hwain and other team members needed to become stronger faster than other heroes.

“I am against it. Even if we don’t have these unknown means, we can still become stronger through ordinary efforts. Fine, you are also seeing the effects of the special training, right? I don’t think there’s any need to overdo it.”

Jeongyoung was the first to express his opinion. In fact, Hwa-in’s growth was noticeable compared to those around him, and Ra-on and Jeong-yeong were also growing at a considerable rate. It was a reasonable thought.

“I… , I do not know. Although I made fun of ARMY, I actually had no memory of the Suwon Great Rift incident. Of course, I occasionally watched it on TV after that.”

… Come to think of it, I see. Feeling deceived, I looked sullenly and Raon raised one hand and apologized with a wink. I forgave him because he was cute.

“So, even if that place is amazing, there are things that I, like ARMY, don’t really feel. But since our team points are pretty high these days, I think our rank will go up if we do this, right? But there’s something suspicious about me becoming stronger. So, I will abstain.”

There was one vote against and one abstention. In order, I guess I’m next.

“I──”

At first, I tried to say no. There is no need to become strong in a hurry. Didn’t you think of that just the other day?

However, the image of Mr. Rabbit came to mind and I hesitated for a moment. I don’t know where that fear comes from. It could just be that Mr. Rabbit has a timid personality and is the type to be afraid of his boss. Still, when I thought of the one-in-a-thousand or one-in-10,000 possibilities, I still hesitated.

When I was hesitating and unable to come up with an answer, an intuition came to me as if it had been a long time since I had been given a helping hand.

[So that no regrets remain.]

“──I agree.”

One for, one against, one abstention. In a neatly divided state, everyone’s eyes turned to Hwain.

“You can become stronger normally. Jeongyoung, you are right. I might not have known it before, but now I think I can believe in myself and move forward.”

So is it the opposite? When I thought that, Hwa-in’s eyes lingered on me for a moment and then fell.

Well, I felt something, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

“But I’m sorry. I want to become stronger as soon as possible. I think I can take a little risk for that.”

I’m in no hurry to do anything. Still, as someone who equally voted in favor, I couldn’t criticize Hwa-in’s choice, so I just smiled bitterly.

After some discussion, it was decided that we would participate in the internship with Hwa-in contacting Slim-eyed Man.

*****